Constance Grady in Vox:
The question has been hurtling through think pieces, op-eds, and ominous headlines over the past few years: Have American men stopped reading? Specifically, have they stopped reading fiction? And is that why the world is so bad now? The most recent entry in this genre came in December, when David J. Morris, an assistant professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, theorized in a New York Times op-ed that the disappearance of literary men is a contributing factor to Donald Trump’s dominant performance with the manosphere. The conversation is so persistent that writer Jason Diamond declared in GQ back in August, with some resignation, “We’re Doing ‘Men Don’t Read Books’ Discourse Again.”
Reading fiction has assumed the same role as therapy in public discourse: something good for one’s mental and emotional health that we should all do in order to be better citizens, and something that men — particularly straight men — are simply choosing not to do, to the detriment of society. Essayists and critics have been hitting this note for several years, but it has acquired a new darkness since the 2024 election, when men seemed to break decisively for Trump. If men had been willing to read novels, the idea is, perhaps Kamala Harris would be preparing her inaugural address right now.
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I remember the moment
OpenAI
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